D I Y : Shattered Glass Manicure

Today I have a cool and pretty easy DIY manicure- I call it shattered glass, I’m not sure what it’s actual name is, if it has one. But whatever it is, it’s suuuper pretty and different-looking.

I’m always down for new nail art, and preferably nail art that doesn’t take hours to complete and countless tries. I found this little set of stickers and thought I’d give it a go, and it came out awesome! (in just one try 😉 ) So here’s the step by step:

What you’ll need:

A base color polish – I used my all time favorite nude- Samoan Sand by OPI

Nail art stickers – These ones are by Cina Nail Creations– I found them at Sally’s Beauty Supply. The original way to do this manicure is with a kind of foil (like this one) that you cut up and stick on however you want which I imagine is more or less the same, but I used these pre cut decals. (other stickers I found online HERE )

Tweezers (optional)– if you feel like it’s easier to apply the pieces with tweezers, or if you have really short nails and can’t peel and apply the stickers with ease.

Step 1:

Paint your nails in two coats of your color of choice and let dry for at least 10-15 minutes. (sidenote: I don’t use base coats. I find that base coats add too many layers and contribute to polish peeling off.) I chose my favorite nude shade which is OPI Samoan Sand. This shade honestly goes with any skin tone and any season. I wear it all the time. You can maybe even do two coats of this to make a richer color. I also prefer the look of this statement shattered glass nail with a more nude/ neutral base rather than a bold color.

Step 2:

Choose and cut out the design you want from the sheet. Now you have the choice to either cut out the little individual shapes and apply them one by one, or you could do the whole section at once against your nail. You’d just have to size it up right with your nail if you choose to do the latter. I had to cut off the top of a couple triangles because they were for longer nails than mine.

Note: cut as close to the triangles as possible to avoid too much of the clear sticker showing surrounding the metallic triangle.

You can see I didn’t cut as close as possible to the triangle. But it gets covered up eventually by the other triangles.

I did the next two triangles together because they fit and it was easier 🙂

Step 3:

Make sure you trim the top of any stickers that hang over. Then do a top coat over all nails with the best top coat in the whole entire universe – Sally Hansen Gel Shine 3D. I’ve written about it before, and I will again, this top coat is the best I’ve ever used and keeps nails perfect for at least 7-8 days. It says “gel” but it comes off with normal nail polish remover.